There is a great deal in Tishani Doshi’s “Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods” that, one might argue, has more the narrative than the poetic about it. Snapshots from Doshi’s life, travels, encounters. In spite of this almost semi-prosaic style, there is a great deal here that is engaging, warm. I confess that part of me wanted not to like the poems because they weren’t ‘poetic enough’ – but I think I failed.
I particularly liked ‘Considering Motherhood While Falling of a Ladder in Rome’. And this, from ‘Saturday on the Score’ is great:
You agree on nothing except
to walk till you have collected
enough lost objects to fill
the minutes of Mozart’s Requiem.
Subtle. Lovely.
Ian Gouge - Writer 